Ally tensed against my chest, and asked, “What?”

“The angel, its title should be “Ave Maria.””

“Axel,” Ally sighed, “It’s beautiful… it’s perfect.”

Ally pressed kisses all along my neck and I closed my eyes, relaxing at her touch. “The broken angel is my mamma in this life. Trapped in a body she couldn’t escape from, praying for death rather than living in that hell. The ashes she’s holding are symbolic for death.”

Ally’s lips had left my neck, her body so still. “And the other side?”

I smiled, almost feeling the warm sun on my mamma’s face. “That’s the next life, heaven, paradise, whatever you wanna call it. That’s my mamma waking after death, fully healed, feeling the bright sun on her healthy body… free… it was always my dream from when she got sick. That she would once again be free.”

A sense of peace filled me as I looked at the statue and I took a deep breath. All the titles and information were given. I’d gotten through it. The exhibition was finally complete.

“Axel?” Ally said.

“Mmm?” I murmured, my attention fixing on the bright stars of Orion’s belt through the glass roof.

“It’s time to tell your brothers about your sculptures.”

I waited for the apprehension, the shame and the dread. For once, it didn’t come. As I stared up at the stars, I realized I was ready to tell them about the real reason I was in Seattle, and what I’d really been doing with my life.

“Yeah,” I said in response. “I’ll tell them tomorrow.”

I could feel Ally smile against my chest, and she whispered, “Te amo, querido.”

A rush, an almost crippling feeling of love ran through me, filling my every muscle and I whispered back, “Ti amo, carina. Sempre.”

Chapter Twenty

Axel

As I sanded the final curve of the hand, then washed the Carrara marble down with water, I stood back on the riverbank and exhaled.

This was my favorite piece yet.

I’d worked around the clock to get this done over the past week, the quickest I’d ever completed a sculpture, but I had no choice. I had to get the image from my head and into marble… I needed this piece to be seen forever. I needed it to complete my first show. It was the perfect end to the journey Ally had created.

As the afternoon wind whipped around me, I covered the sculpture with its tarp, padlocking it to the plinth and texted Vin that I’d finished. Only he knew I was adding it to the exhibition last minute. He had the text boards made up in private, the title board, colored backdrop and everything else I needed to make this perfect.

A beep came through my cell, telling me that he was on his way with his men. I told him where it was and that I’d be out. More than that, I trusted him to make the placement of it in the gallery.

Vin assured me everything would be fine and Ally would never know of it until opening night. It was my surprise for her.

My soul’s gift to hers.

Moving into my studio, I smirked at the still messed up linen on bed. Every morning I’d usually wake up and make my bed before anything—years of being in prison giving me habits too hard to shake. But after last night, after making love to Ally last night, her telling me she loved me over and over in my ear as we came together… I couldn’t bring myself to change a thing.

Seeing the Camino keys on the workstation, I walked over, picked them up, as well as my smokes and made my way out to my car. Nerves were shredding my stomach. The thought of telling Austin and Lev all about my sculptures; more than that, about my opening tomorrow night had me almost puking.

What the hell would they think? Me. A sculptor with his own show in a real fucking museum.

A new wave of something new hit me as I imagined their happy reaction… relief, excitement… want. Fuck, that was it; I wanted them to be proud of me. I wanted them to finally see me as more than just their older brother who’d only ever shown skill in pushing coke.

As I weaved through the streets of Seattle, I thought back to when Ally told me she’d be leaving to do her next commission after my show. The thought of not having her next to me every single day made every part of me fucking ache. I wanted her to stay. I wanted her to stay here in Seattle with me.

I had to figure out a way of making it happen. I couldn’t let her leave. We’d come too fucking far.

As I drew closer to Austin’s house, the nerves returned making my hands shake. I laughed that I was shaking. I was a damn pussy.

In minutes I’d parked up the Camino and walked through the front door… then immediately stopped dead at seeing Levi and Austin sat on the stairs, with my bag full of clothes sitting at their feet.

Both of my brothers had their heads down, but when they heard the door open, Austin looked up, a stony expression on his face.

“What’s all this?” I asked, feeling the temperature in the room drop about fifty degrees.

Austin got to his feet and walked over to stand at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed over his chest.

When his eyes met mine, I could see how much pain he was in. I almost moved forward to wrap my arm around his shoulders to ask him what was wrong, but the shitty way he was looking at me kept me rooted to the floor.

Austin lifted his foot, and rested it on top of my bag. “Went to the fish market this morning, Axe, the one you said you were working at.”

The blood drained from my face.

“Yeah, Axe. The market where the managers had no fucking idea who I was talking about.”